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The importance of innovation has been increasingly highlighted in construction as a large and complex industry sector that is more challenging than ever before. To bridge the knowledge gap about how firm size affects innovation in construction, the purpose of this paper is to explore firm-level innovation through an empirical investigation and compare innovation in construction firms of different sizes in terms of drivers and strategies.

This research adopts a combination of a literature review, a group of qualitative interviews and a quantitative questionnaire survey. In this research, the questionnaire survey is the main instrument to collect empirical data. Main contractors, subcontractors and specialist contractors as well as suppliers of labor, material and equipment are used in this research to represent construction firms of different sizes. On the other hand, client organizations, design firms and management consultants are not included in this research.

This research provides clear evidence for the embrace of innovation in construction. Many forces can drive construction firms to innovate and many strategies can be applied to construction innovation. Innovation drivers can be either internal or external. On the other hand, innovation strategies fall into four categories: technology, resource, marketing and management. For innovation drivers and strategies, both commonalities and differences can be found among construction firms of different sizes.

The finding of commonalities describes the general trend of innovation development in construction. It also encourages all construction firms to innovate regardless of firm size. On the other hand, the finding of differences enables construction firms of different sizes to realize what forces better drive their innovation and what strategies are more appropriate for their innovation. A thorough understanding of innovation drivers and strategies offers an important framework for construction organizations and practitioners to pursue best practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of facilities managers in sustainable practice. It also analyzes the change in facilities management (FM) in terms of sustainability.

This research adopted a combination of literature review and expert interviews. Empirical data were collected through in-depth interviews with 40 industrial experts in the UK and Ireland.

The analysis of interview results shows a sustainable movement in the context of FM. Facilities managers play important roles in sustainable practice, including integrating all sustainability considerations, linking strategic level with operational level, incorporating FM knowledge and experience into design, disseminating sustainable knowledge and educating people and encouraging sustainability through innovation.

This research goes beyond the limitations of existing studies that are characterized by a lack of positioning facilities managers in sustainability.

Sustainable delivery represents a direction of FM development. This research describes what facilities managers can do and how they should do for sustainable delivery of FM, based on which improvements are made and benefits are maximized.

This research provides a deeper insight into the FM role in the sustainable agenda. The findings of this research help industrial practitioners and academic researchers to better understand sustainable FM.

The purpose of this paper is to provide facilities management (FM) practitioners and researchers with a better understanding of the FM industry sector by analyzing the trend of its development.

Semi-structured interview is adopted in this research as the main methodology. In total, 30 FM professionals in the UK were interviewed to explore the past, present and future of FM. The analysis of interview results helps to identify the key areas in which FM has changed, is changing and will change. It also helps to explain the implications of FM development in each key area.

FM evolves and matures continuously. It is important for FM organizations and practitioners to recognize the dynamic nature of this industry sector, based on which they can develop appropriate strategies to adapt to changing circumstances. This is probably the only way for them to keep pace with the times.

Both backward looking and forward looking are crucial to the development of an industry sector. However, existing studies on FM development are conducted through either review or outlook. On the other hand, most of these studies focus on one particular management area or one particular industry sector. Based on 30 expert interviews, this research attempts to bridge the knowledge gap and analyze the trend of FM development in a systematic way. A better understanding of the trend provides a possibility and a guide for FM organizations and practitioners to pursue best practice.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the major performance measurement models, hereafter called performance models, and investigate their application in the context of facility management (FM), based on which it aims to identify the effectiveness of these models and recommend the most important performance indicators.

A combination of literature review, expert interview and questionnaire survey is adopted in this study. A literature review and a series of expert interviews help to identify the performance models spread in general and applied to FM in particular. Based on the literature review and expert interviews, a questionnaire survey is carried out in the UK and Ireland to investigate the application of performance models in FM practice.

The review of relevant literature shows that in recent years various models have been developed to measure and improve the performance of organisations. The application of such models within FM organisations is evaluated in this study. It is found that key performance indicators (KPI), the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), and the Business Excellence Model (BEM) are more widely accepted and more effective than others. This is similar to the findings by a previous construction study. FM organisations benefit from effective performance measurement. When measuring performance, it is important for them to select the appropriate models and indicators.

The existing studies contribute to the establishment of various performance models and the introduction of their concepts into the FM discipline. However, whether the application of these models in reality is effective or not needs to be justified. This research aims at analysing the real effect of existing models in the FM sector. Comparison is made between FM and construction. It helps to identify the major benefits from performance measurement for FM organisations. It provides FM practitioners with an insight into the appropriate use of performance models and indicators.